The head of the Olympic committee used to smuggle sports equipment in with mujahideen weapons' shipments, the country's best sprinter had no idea what the Olympics were the first time he competed, and the only female athlete on the team has to worry about covert mobile-phone videos of her training sessions turning up online. Meet the Afghan team.

Afghanistan has been left stranded on the margins of international sport by three decades of conflict, and grinding poverty, but the challenges have also served to hone the six-strong Olympic team's mental strength.

In Beijing, the taekwondo fighter Rohullah Nikpai won a bronze that was the country's first Olympic medal, and the group heading to London this year are aiming for more.

"It's my great hope that I can bring back a medal for myself and my country," said the 23-year-old Ajmal Faizada, eight times the national judo champion, who will be competing thanks to a wildcard.

For years Faizada has started training at 5am, worked from 8am to 5pm painting cars and then returned for an evening judo session. He knows tough conditions at home mean that he faces an uphill struggle in elite international competition.

"In terms of mentality, it's important for a sportsman to feel relaxed and secure. But we have economic problems, suicide attacks and the war. And when it comes to training and equipment we can't compare."

He practises in a single room on the edge of Kabul's only stadium, once used by the Taliban for public executions. The two sprinters comprising Afghanistan's track and field team train nearby, in conditions that would make many elite athletes hang up their running shoes.

"I always say we only have one problem, which is that we have nothing," said Abdul Karim Aziz, the head of the national athletics federation.

"We have no electronic timing equipment, no starting gun … most of the runners don't even have standard [running] shoes, just ones they buy from the bazaar."

The only female athlete on the Olympic team, Tahmina Kohistani, also has to deal with the daily challenge of being a female runner in a country where many men still think women should not take part in sports.

Aziz said he had caught boys sneaking into the stadium to video her training and post the clips on the internet. Others shout abuse when they see her run.

"They think women who exercise are not clean," Kohistani said, sitting on the bleachers in modest traditional dress, with her hair covered.

"This is a country that has endured a dark regime and three decades of war. People are just starting to move forward and try new things. I expect these reactions against me, it's a traditional country. Sport has no value to them."

Kohistani, who has the full support of her family and coach and says she tries to ignore her critics, expects London to be one of the greatest memories of her life.

"I hope my participation will be an inspiration to other Afghan women and girls," the 22-year-old undergraduate says, adding that she has plans and pledges of financial support to convert that inspiration into action on her return and create a sports programme for women ..

Her team-mate and fellow sprinter Masood Aziz is looking forward to his third Olympics in a career that began in relaxed fashion because he thought he was attending just another international athletics meeting. "When I got there I was amazed to see the huge crowd, and several champions in the stadium. I felt like I had joined the champions … like I was a true sportsman," he said.

Perhaps because of the legacy of violence, combat sports are highly popular and account for four of the six-strong team – Nikpai, a taekwondo team-mate, judoka Faizada and a boxer.

"Some people say boxing is a violent sport, but I like it because it is strong and tough," said the 22-year-old Ajmal Faisal, who will be competing as a wildcard in the 52kg category.

The government has launched a push for young Afghans to take up team sports rather than more individualistic, "violence-based" martial arts.

"What we are doing now, based on our new policy, is to focus more on group sports like basketball, volleyball and others … that promote team working and unity," said Lieutenant General Muhammad Zahir Aghbar, the head of the Afghan Olympic committee, who has a far more colourful CV than most of his international counterparts.

As a young man he joined the mujahideen guerillas fighting Soviet forces but refused to give up a passion for sport that led him to compete internationally with the national handball team. "I was the one and only commander who during jihad times also had a team playing sport," he said.

His dedication led him to hide balls and nets among more critical shipments on a transport plane from Tajikistan, earning the anger of his charismatic general, Ahmad Shah Massoud.

"He criticised me, and said 'this is a time of war, you should be bringing more weapons, not sports material'," Aghbar said. He continued the covert shipments anyway, and when the Taliban were toppled in 2001, asked for a job promoting sports and physical education.

"My life has been tied up with sports," he said, with no signs of diminishing enthusiasm. So what is next for the dry and landlocked country's athletic ambitions? "We are working to establish water polo as a sport; Afghans are quite interested in it."